I must say up front I’m not a zombie fan. I don’t watch The Walking Dead, I don’t read zombie apocalypse books (except for Only Love Survives by Renee Charles, fabulous read). I’ve only seen one other zombie movie—Warm Bodies, which I also quite liked. But as a rule, I leave the undead alone. When I saw the book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in Barnes & Noble years ago I scoffed. What was the world coming to taking a classic like this and mucking it up with zombies?

However, a week or so ago I was on Facebook and saw an ad for the movie, that came out in February. I watched the trailer and said, “I need to go see this.” I went tonight and was not disappointed in the least.

PPZ is the story of Pride and Prejudice set in a time when zombies have all but taken over Regency England. All that are left are little pockets of towns and estates not overrun with brain-eating zombies. And Longbourne, Netherfield Park, and Rosings Park are three of these estates. The film tries to blend the plot of Jane Austin’s beloved romance with a hard-hitting, action-packed story in a world where young men AND women train in martial arts and weaponry to defend against the undead. One critic has said the film tries to be funny and scary and I believe he is correct. Does it succeed all the time? No. However, to the lover of Regency romance and Pride and Prejudice, if you can get past the heresy of doing this to the novel at all, you may find it as funny and entrancing as I did.

I won’t spoil the fun bits for you, but Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth is worth the price of admission. Suffice it to say, the war of words in the original is enhanced by hand-to-hand combat that had me enchanted throughout. The character of Lady Catherine de Bourgh is also more fun than the law should allow. She’s the bad-ass swordsman who has killed more zombies than anyone else in England, losing an eye and gaining an eye patch along the way. A great improvement over the original, in my opinion. LOL

So I will go out on a limb and tell you to go see this fun mashup of Regency England and zombie culture. Be forewarned, however. Don’t expect complete historical accuracy in the costumes, nor in some of the manners. But if you take the film with a large grain of salt, I think you’ll be as highly amused and entertained as I.